The advantage of long vacations. In Bali I've read :
- Against the Gods, the remarkable story of risk (Peter Bernstein) : pretty good history of statistics and the worldview behind them
- Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother (Amy Chua) : entertaining and more nuanced than expected
- The Art of Plotting (Linda Cowgill) : another shitty "how to write a screenplay" (strange obsession for Erin Brockowich)
- True Grit (Charles Portis) : quite enjoyable (the Coen Bros adaptation is faithful in tone)
- The Zen of Steve Jobs (comic book) : quick and superficial
- 25 French Films (Roger Ebert) : quick reviews of some important french films
- The Games that Changed the Game (Ron Jaworski) : about American Football, a bit confusing, not enough explanations.
- Problem Solving 101 (Ken Watanabe) : a concise book on planning your goals and solving problems. Short and smart.
- The Talent Code (Daniel Coyle) : a good description of the formula to achieve excellence
- The Art of the Steal (Frank Abagnale) : a reference book on scams, cons and other ways to rip people off, by the real life hero of Catch Me if You Can.
- Tokyo Vice (Jake Adelstein) : a Jewish-American reporter in the world of Japanese journalism, includes Tokyo's red light districts and Yakuza

Okay franc- what do you do for a living???, I barely have time to read you list, much less read those books.
I had to get up twice to chase my toddler around, since I started reading this thread. It's taken me 40 minutes to get this far.
The Talent Code, and Art of the Steal, looks really good.
I tried the Devil in White City, Audio book, but had a zillion other domestic and work related errands...*sigh*

So, I work for a company that belongs to the Daimler concern (Mercedes-Benz). Our job is to make sure that trucks, buses and transporters get repaired as efficiently as possible in case of breakdown, and that the workshops and garages get paid. My department works all over Europe and our team is made up with people from about 10 different countries.

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I barely have time to read you list, much less read those books.

Neither do I generally, but we were on vacation for two weeks, including extremely long flights, so I caught up on my reading. Thank you Kindle !

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The Talent Code, and Art of the Steal, looks really good.

The Talent Code is one of those books in the same vein as Freaknomics or Malcolm Gladwell's, in its category it was pretty good.
The Art of the Steal is a bit scary, makes you paranoid about all the possible ways to get fleeced in our daily lives. On the other hand, I'd recommend it strongly for anyone interested in writing stories of con men or crime stories in general, it contains dozens of potential starting points.

Yeah I just realized that when I think of Ludwig, I just think of him either (a.) sitting around being cool or (b.) practicing aikido.

Ludwig is Franc?
I need a chart to match up real names to screen names.
Oh! Or maybe there could be a game show thread with prizes!!

Franc, you know good and well you synthesize your critiques from the wikipedia version.:P
Franc should change his picture to this:
But seriously, you have impeccable taste in lit!
I know I've seen a few of those Nick and Norah movies (great dialogue). I used to live with my grandma, so I have an affinity for black and white movies.
Uh, and Pica is your lady...I'm getting the hang of this.
And you are a supervisor at Mercedes-Benz. That's a rad job!!
But you and Pica live in France?
The only language I sound good saying is German. People say that I pronounces things really accurately, it feels like my first language- natural. I need to learn more than novice.
My husband is French on both sides of his family. But I think my husband knows as much about France as I do about India.
I speak Indian menu fluently.

So, there is a Most Interesting Woman in the World. Hmm, we may need to make a documentary on her.
You know hobbies are a powerful way to meet a mate. You two met here on the Cult site. Met my husband, Joey, playing poker. We played in same tournaments for years, then saw each other at mutual best friends house and realized we had so much more in common. Fell in love in a week.

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Do you read it too ? There's a German language thread somewhere around here.

Nein. My German is like talking with a baby. A baby that speaks very well, though.

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Where is he from in France ?

His father is French-Canadian, and his mother was born in France but grew up in Lyons.

There's this French guy at work who's an engineer and he smokes a lot and can outdrink me and he's thr smartest person in the lab and he will not allow you to take his picture and he doesn't have a cellphone. That's the only French person I've met. He's cool.

Now I´ve decided to get a little bit more into stephen king. going for vacation next week and I wanted to get one of his books. I believe I`ve just read shining from him.
So which one would you recommend me? I really can`t decide!

Now I´ve decided to get a little bit more into stephen king. going for vacation next week and I wanted to get one of his books. I believe I`ve just read shining from him.
So which one would you recommend me? I really can`t decide!

Heartsick is great.

For Stephen King, I loved Carrie. It's up there as a favorite of mine.
If you have the time to invest, The Stand is awesome.
And the first Stephen King I ever read was Salem's Lot. It's got a special place in my heart.

tuquegirl wrote:

Hey, any recommendations similar to Geek Love by Katherine Dunn, The Cortortionists Handbook by Craig Clevenger, and Clown Girl by Monika Drake?

I'd have to agree with Craig Davidson. But I like to recommend The Fighter.
Also Kiss Me, Judas by Will Christopher Baer. And then Penny Dreadful and Hell's Half Acre.
I love Harry Crews' work. I would compare it to the style of Geek Love. Try A Feast of Snakes.
Another good one would be Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell.

Tales from the Script : a series a testimonies from Hollywood screenwriters about how they entered and stayed in the business.

There's a cool DVD series, a few years old now, called "The Dialogue" that I enjoyed a lot; probably very similar. It's not very often you see long interviews with scribes, so they get pretty in-depth on that kind of stuff over the course of 80 or so minutes each.

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